I have a disk for local backups (that is the only purpose of that disk). I was wondering what would make it last longer:

- Keep it mounted to my server permanently (current solution)
- Keep it unmounted most of the time, mount it when I’m going to do a backup (either daily or every 3 days, I don’t mind changing that) and unmounting after the backup is done.

What would be the best strategy?

cc @[email protected] @[email protected]

  • @satanmat
    link
    79 months ago

    Longer lasting I think; leave it powered on and warm.

    Best in reality; buy 3 drives, and after you do a backup move one off site.

    3-2-1-1

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
      English
      39 months ago

      100% this. If we’re talking about a mechanical drive, you want to minimize the state changes it goes through. So leaving it powered on all the time and spinning is the best. There’s data centers with old computers that engineers are afraid to turn off cuz they’re not sure they’ll turn back on.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    19 months ago

    I recently bought a second external drive to do a backup of the first one. In the process I’m going to switch to btrfs. It can do data scrubbing which allows for self repair of corrupted data, which can occur if you leave a drive unpowered in a closet for some years.

  • 🅿🅸🆇🅴🅻
    link
    19 months ago

    Hmm. I unmount mine to reduce noise. Didn’t think about endurance though, curious to see opinions too.